A number of ablation treatments have been used to treat tumors or other tissue in a patient's body. In some cases, ablation therapy may be used to treat tumors that are not responsive to chemotherapy or other techniques. For example, primary liver cancer or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive neoplasm that may not respond well to intravenous chemotherapy.
The choice of treatment for HCC normally depends on severity of underlying liver disease, size and number of lesions, location of lesions, ability to detect them with MRI, non-contrast CT, or ultrasound, and local expertise. Conventionally, physicians have employed RF ablation or microwave ablation to destroy the tumor tissue with heat, combined heating with coadministration of liposomes containing a drug, cryoablation to freeze a tumor, hepatic arterial drug infusion, bland arterial embolization, chemotherapy combined with arterial embolization, selective internal radioembolization using radioactive labeled iodized oil or radioactive microspheres as the embolic agent, external beam radiation therapy, or direct injection of an agent (e.g., ethanol, acetic acid, hot saline, or sodium hydroxide) to provide chemical toxic effects on the tumor tissue.